Pomona council deadlocks on transfer station franchise agreement

POMONA >> Three weeks ago, it appeared the proponents of the Grand Central Recycling and Transfer Station were close to breaking ground on the project.

Now, just what will happen to that project is unclear.

City Council members deadlocked 3-3 on Monday on an ordinance calling for awarding a franchise agreement to Grand Central for its transfer facility on East Ninth Street.

Council members Freddie Rodriguez, Paula Lantz and Ginna Escobar voted yes. Council members John Nolte, Cristina Carrizosa and Debra Martin voted against. Mayor Elliott Rothman did not vote.

Another attempt to address the matter Thursday afternoon failed when the council could not muster a quorum.

Monday’s meeting was at times contentious with opponents of the transfer station again expressing their opposition. After several votes in which the council was deadlocked, members began to leave before the meeting had officially ended and without giving direction to staff on how to proceed.

That prompted Thursday’s attempt at a meeting.

The deadlock will remain until at least the council’s next meeting on Oct. 21, said City Attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman.

What comes next was not clear Thursday except that construction of the transfer station by Valley Vista Services may not begin until the council awards the developer a franchise.

“Depending on whether the council approves or does not approve this matter, then the city’s options will have to be analyzed,” Alvarez-Glasman said.

After Thursday’s attempt at a meeting, David Perez, vice president of Valley Vista Services, said he had no comment.

Attorney James Sambrano, who in the past represented residents opposed to the facility, was at the meeting Thursday, which he said had not been legally noticed. Alvarez-Glasman said during the meeting that the requirements of the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, had been met because the Monday meeting was not formally closed by the council.

Sambrano said there was no reason for the franchise agreement to be revisited Thursday since he believes the decision was made when the council failed to approve the franchise at the Monday meeting, which went into early Tuesday.

Council members gave preliminary approval Sept. 16 to the proposed franchise agreement, with final approved planned on Monday.

At the Monday meeting Perez committed to paying $1 million in annual franchise fees to the city after the first year of operation.

Nolte said he thought the city should further negotiate with Valley Vista in terms of not allowing its green waste go to the Ninth Street transfer station.

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Instead, Nolte said, green waste and certain other organic waste could be used for a city-owned composting business which could generate jobs. Such options should be explored, negotiated and written into an agreement, he said.

“All possibilities just haven’t been taken into account,” Nolte said.

Lantz asked Nolte where the city would store the green waste. That was something that needed to be discussed, Nolte said, but “I don’t think that was looked into in the negotiation process.”

Martin, who had voted for preliminary approval of the proposed agreement, said the city must have a means of handling its waste and that the transfer station can do it.

However, “I really feel it should be Pomona trash only,” she said.

Limiting the waste at the transfer station to that generated by the city’s residents and businesses would hurt them because it would increase the trash collection rate they pay, Perez said.

Lantz said the city’s growth and improvement in the economy will lead Pomona to generate enough waste to meet the 1,000 tons a day the facility was authorized to handle.

Nolte proposed creating a council committee to address green waste and other matters before moving forward with the agreement, but his proposal received a tie vote with Nolte, Carrizosa and Martin in favor and Rodriguez, Lantz and Escobar against.

Lantz moved to approve the agreement but it received a 3-3 vote. Four votes were needed for passage. The council voted on two more Nolte motions that included creation of a green waste committee but again they led to tie votes.